Villarreal-Paris: The Preview
Men's football•
We look ahead to Tuesday's UEFA Champions League league phase encounter in Spain (9pm CET).
Damien Mittereau
It's likely to be entertaining on Tuesday night at the Estadio de La Cerámica. Villarreal may only have three points so far, but they have given almost as good as they have got. They were beaten late on in Dortmund (3-2) before losing a seven-goal thriller in Liverpool two weeks ago. In between those encounters, they took their first win with a 3-1 defeat of Napoli and are now looking for a second successive home win.
Paris Saint-Germain have been impressive so far though. After seeing off Slovan Bratislava (6-1) and Manchester City (4-2), the double European champions then defeated Barcelona (4-2) to make it three wins from three in this season's league phase. They head to Spain aiming to extend that 100% record.
4 – Villarreal (5.3 goals) and Paris (6.3) are both in the top four for goals-per-game in the Champions League this season.
4 – Since Luis Enrique's arrival, Paris Saint-Germain are unbeaten in for Champions League trips to Spain (3 wins, 1 draw).
13 – With 9 wins and 4 draws, the capital club are unbeaten in their last 13 Champions League games, that's a club record.
Home coach Iñigo Pérez is likely to have the experienced Péter Gulácsi (81 matches in European competition) between the posts, preferring the former RB Leipzig man to Luiz Júnior. In front of him will be Portugal international Renato Veiga with Pau Navarro (21). The homegrown youngster is ahead of former Toulouse player Logan Costa in the centre-back pecking order while Argentina international Juan Foyth is out with injury.
There are two options at right-back: Santiago Mouriño and Alex Freeman. The former - a Uruguay international - is likely to start ahead of his American teammate. On the other side, Carlos Romero is back from injury and could start in place of his fellow Spaniard Sergi Cardona. Santi Comesaña will be in midfield and could line up with Pape Gueye, the Senegal international who was suspended for last weekend's league game.
It's not yet known if Canada international Nathan Saliba can shake off an injury to start. Promising youngster Carlos Macià (18) does not appear ready to feature while Alassane Diatta is also a doubt. If Saliba misses out, the hosts could go with two up front and two wide men. On the left, Alberto Moleiro will be a threat to Paris while on the left former Lille and Arsenal man Nicolas Pepé could bring his quality and experience, though another Canadian, Tajon Buchanan, has filled the role in recent weeks. Morocco international Ilias Akhomach is sidelined, but former Lyon man Georges Mikautadze will feature, especially given captain Gerard Moreno is an injury doubt. Tani Oluwaseyi is most likely to replace the Spain international in attack with Ayoze Pérez on the bench.